How did this happen?

Somehow, watching a documentary about the prevalence of young girls being raped in Zimbabwe on the same night Hubby and I decided that we are probably done at 3 kids (we're really tired of diapers and wiping butts, lol), led to me sponsoring another little one.

Meet Marina, and she is sponsored through World Vision.  Marina lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo with her mother, 5 brothers, and 1 sister.  Marina is 4 years old.

Sometimes I seriously wonder if all of my sponsored children are some kind of filler for the fact that I always wanted to adopt internationally.  Hubby and I did end up adopting, but we ended up adopting through the U.S. foster care system, and since we're done at 3 kids, I highly doubt an international adoption will be in our future.  Even if, in a few years, we decided that a 4th child would be a good idea, international adoption is a long, windy road, especially these days.

So, it looks like I will just have to sponsor a lot of little ones instead.

Wow!

Saturday, when my mail arrived, I was overwhelmed with THREE letters from my World Vision kids.  An introductory letter from Alphonsine, and an introductory letter from Willy, as well as a thank you letter from Willy for the package I sent.  I was just beginning to worry that the correspondence with my World Vision kids would not be as great as everyone else's!
The letters were full notebook pages, and full of information!  I am very pleased with how much information is in each letter, and how detailed the thank you note was for the package I sent back at the end of August!

My 1st correspondent letter!

On Saturday, I was very pleasantly surprised to receive my first correspondent letter.  This letter was from Jorge, my 7 year old correspondent from Ecuador.  It was full of information, and I think Jorge is going to be a child who has a lot to say in his letters.  He wrote it himself, which is so cute-all of my other children are too young to write their letters themselves.  Jorge's favorite color is pink, his favorite sport is soccer, and he describes himself as a tall, handsome boy with black eyes.  Love it!
It's also nice to receive a letter in a language that I really don't need translated, as it seems that those many, many years of Spanish have stuck with me somewhat into my adult life.
I wrote all of my children online letters and attached pics last night, so Jorge will hopefully have a quick response to his letter.
This is also the picture he drew me on the back of the letter

I think I love looking at their drawings as much as reading their letters!

Going to Togo!

After talking it over with my husband, we've decided I will be going on the Togo sponsor tour in July 2014!  I'm excited and nervous all at the same time.  I've traveled internationally before, but I know this will be different than anything I'm used to.  However nervous I am, though, this is something I've really, really wanted for a long time, even before I became a Compassion sponsor.

I only have 1 sponsored child in Togo, and East India was actually first on my list of sponsorship tours I wanted to go on, however, the Togo trip is during the right time of year.  It will be during the summer, so my mom will be available to help my husband with our kids (she's a teacher), and there is not going to be an East India sponsor tour in 2014.  

Our ultimate plan is for me to go to Togo with Compassion in July 2014, and then take our entire family to Honduras with the MAMA project either late 2014 or early 2015.  And, whenever the next Compassion sponsor tour to East India pops up, I'd really like to be able to go.  This means we'll be doing some serious money saving over the next couple years to enable all of this expensive travel.  We figure taking our kids to Honduras is a much better experience than taking them back to Disney World ;-)

Living in Fear

Please check out the Compassion blog post below.  There are kids in Honduras who can't get to their child development centers because it's just not safe enough to walk.  A wonderful, involved sponsor has thought of a solution, but they need some monetary help.

http://blog.compassion.com/living-fear/

Another 1st letter!

I was thrilled to see a cream colored envelope from Compassion in my mail today!  Turns out, it was a first letter from Sabnam, my little one in East India who has a birthday coming up (she'll be 5 in about a week).  I found out that Sabnam has 1 brother who is 11, and 2 sisters who are 9 and 1.  Her favorite color is yellow, and her favorite food is rice and meat.

Her family has cows, goats, a dog, and a hen at home!  Sounds like they are doing well!

Meet Vincent!

Meet my newest sponsored child, Vincent.  Vincent has just turned 5 years old, and is from a new center in Togo where the average monthly income is just $10, and the community needs electricity, potable water, health centers, schools, and vocational training centers.  Vincent is not yet in school due to his young age.

I periodically look through the sponsor a child pages on Compassion's website, and most of the time, I just want someone else to sponsor a certain child, or I pray that kids who have been waiting a long time get a sponsor soon, etc.  However, with Vincent, I immediately knew I wanted to be his sponsor.  He'd been waiting almost a full year for a sponsor when I clicked the button to sponsor him, and I could not say no to that face.  So, Vincent is mine.  I sent him a birthday gift the day before his birthday, so it will arrive late, but Vincent will know his sponsor was thinking of him on his birthday this year.